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Pondering on Morality

28th September (Sunday) morning witnessed the latest meetup of Bengaluru Freethinkers. Breaking from the ‘tradition’ of meeting up at Coffee Day, this one was in Cubbon Park. For those who don’t know yet, Cubbon Park would be the venue for all meetups till we come across a better location. Scheduled to start at 11:00 am, very few turned up on time. By 11.30 enough people had trickled in for us to start searching for a spot. Chaitra deserves a special mention here, as she not only setup the meet, but was also thoughtful enough to bring newspapers for the participants, so that they did not have to sit on wet grass.

The total headcount was around twenty. The discussion started even before the introductions were done. The introductions as usual was peppered with the individual ‘coming out’ stories. A variety of topics were brought up even before the official topic for debate was announced. There was a lengthy discussion over the ethics of eating meat. The vegetarian cause did not have enough backers making the discussion look one sided. It transformed into an attack on religion, because in India, religion is held responsible for most of the vegetarianism we see.

Picture Courtesy: Swathi Nair

Having a bigger group is always an encouraging sign. When the discussion diverges into three to four different topics among the sub-groups that spring up spontaneously, the purpose is defeated. This happened a few times where the discussion had to be stopped to assimilate the diverging topics.We briefly touched upon other topics like the caste system, racism, homosexuality etc. The meeting wound up as it had been planned at around 1 pm. There were a few announcements made for the future meetings and events.

The meetups would now happen regularly on the last Sunday of every month at Cubbon Park till we find a better venue. The next meeting would be on October 26th.

Continuing from the last Meeting Dr. Hippu reiterated his idea of reviving the print magazine ‘Indian Skeptic’. He invited articles and coming out stories to create a buffer of material that could be published.

There is a spot fixing drive by ‘The Ugly Indian’ on October 2nd at M.G. Road. Contact them and sign up if it interests you.

If you were at the meeting and you think I missed out capturing something, kindly bring it to my notice. After the meeting half of us headed to Coffee Day Square for lunch.